


Seeds of Discord Part 29

by kbj1123



Series: Wonder Woman & Captain America [30]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Wonder Woman - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Crossover Pairings, F/M, One True Pairing, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-02-25
Packaged: 2018-03-15 00:32:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3431372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbj1123/pseuds/kbj1123
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone or something is causing violent riots to erupt all over the U.S., and whatever it is, it wreaks havoc with both Wonder Woman's health and Bruce Banner's ability to keep his rage in check.</p><p>Bruce confesses something that upsets Diana and angers Steve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeds of Discord Part 29

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HockeyKnight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HockeyKnight/gifts).



Eyes closed, Diana imagines letting go of everything she doesn’t need at this moment. She draws her navel deep towards her spine and holds the emptiness there for a few moments, aware of the warmth of the sun on the front of her body and the cool shadows at her back. Bruce’s actual instructions were to suspend her breath until she absolutely had to inhale again, but that could be several minutes. Still, it is good to imagine sending away spent air, and old, troubling thoughts and worries that niggle from the periphery of her mind’s eye. She ignores the temptation to inch forward on her meditation cushion, bringing the rest of her body into the sunlight that is only just beginning to fill the room. Closer in is warmth; closer to her friend is warmth. “Namaste,” Bruce tells her. She opens her eyes and smiles up at him. He is sitting by the lemon tree in her favorite part of the arboretum. People are just beginning to mill about the building. The arboretum is still quiet, though. The light that begins to fill the room is soft and pink. The artificial waterfall in the corner bubbles to life, telling them it is exactly 7:30 a.m.

She and Bruce had not spoken when they met this morning for yoga and meditation; they nodded to each other in greeting and began their centering and sun salutations in quiet harmony. Diana had missed this over the past few weeks of chaos. She’d worried over his ability to regain control over his transformations into The Hulk, and, selfishly (she thought), missed their routine. The sun filters through the room a fraction more, making Bruce’s skin seem less pale than it really is. “I’m so grateful that you’re healing. You look better,” she offers. 

“Clean bill of health,” he replies. “The gamma blood levels are more or less back down to their normal levels. My anger’s about as manageable as it usually is, as far as I can tell, but doing this with you helps a lot.” 

He moves his cushion closer to hers and faces her. “Things okay at home?” he asks. It’s been too long since they’ve caught up with each other’s lives. She smiles and he lowers his eyes to his hands. “We’re doing well,” she says. I think Steve still worries about me a little too much, but we’re fine.” She reaches over and squeezes his hand. He squeezes her hand back. “As with you,” she tells him, “the yoga and meditation practices we’ve been sharing have done only good in my life.” 

He doesn’t look up. “Are you okay?” she asks. He holds her hand in both of his own and breathes slowly. “Yeah,” he says after a few seconds. “Mindfulness helps too.” He lifts her hand to his lips a little harder and holds it there for just a moment longer than Diana realizes he ought to. She draws her hand back. “Bruce,” she starts.

“I know,” he interrupts, releasing her hand. “I apologize.” He sounds embarrassed, like a kid who’s been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “Exactly that,” Diana thinks. Bruce continues, “You probably didn’t even realize, and I shouldn’t have done that.” He starts to get up, saying “I should go.”

Diana grabs his hand again and pulls him back down. “You should stay. You should stay and we should talk about this.” There are too many ‘shoulds’ between them. Her stomach flutters and she suddenly feels cold. Bruce slowly shakes his head. “You love your husband. What you two have is so painfully obvious to everyone who sees you together.” 

“I love him with a depth I hadn’t known existed in me,” she replies softly. “You are my friend, and I cherish that friendship very deeply as well.” The fluttering grows stronger and she shivers. He instinctively takes off his SHIELD jacket and leans forward, draping it over her shoulders. His hands linger over her arms for a moment and then he quickly pulls them back to his lap. “Please don’t cry, Diana.”

She wipes a single tear away with the sleeve of Bruce’s jacket. “I can’t lose you,” she tells him. “You’re too dear to me.” He looks at her without replying. The only sound is the running water on the other end of the room. It sounds almost like steady Amazonian rain. The kind of rain she used to play in with her sisters. Her tunic would cling to her like a second skin and they’d raise their arms to the wet sky and sing. The memory is incongruent. A minute or two passes and Diana can tell his heart is breaking because hers is as well. “I remember the first time I saw you cry,” he tells her. “You’d just regained your memory and realized who you really were. Steve freaked out and left town. I couldn’t believe it. I even tried to talk him out of leaving, but off he went.” She takes up his hand in her own again and threads her fingers between his. “You helped me,” she finishes the story. “You listened to me and you explained what was happening to me. You held me and let me cry on your shoulder so many times. Why wouldn’t you let me do the same for you?”

He makes a noise that is somewhere between a sharp inhalation and a laugh. Then he bows his head toward her and practically whispers, “You never lost your faith in him. You never stopped loving him—even when you didn’t know you loved him. How do I compete with someone who inspires that level of devotion?”

Diana closes her eyes and bows her head toward his. The sun moves overhead and the two of them sit in a sad circle of light. Truth can hurt. Certainly, she has been the object of unrequited love many times. She has been pursued by gods and humans alike. Many of them have been dear friends. None of them have been quite this special, though. She searches for some prayer to send up to Athena or Aphrodite; She can’t quite find the words, either in Themyscrian or English. She doesn’t know what to do or say.

“You wouldn’t compete, Bruce,” she finally tells him, deciding on absolute, unvarnished truth. “You never could. I love him. No one will ever have my heart the way Steve does. We could have resolved this though. You wouldn’t have had to carry this weight for so long.” A small group passes them in walking meditation. Diana is inexplicably irritated at the non-intrusion.

“It doesn’t work that way,” Bruce says after they pass from earshot. “I’ll just have to figure out a way to live with this.” She feels tears again. “You’ll live but you’ll be in pain,” she protests. “I don’t know what to do. How do I help you?”

His answer is to use his fingers to wipe away her tears, and then press his lips to her brow. “I didn’t mean to upset you. I was out of line,” he says quietly. She kisses his forehead in return, the way her caretakers used to when she was a child. She doesn’t expect the reaction she gets. Without warning, he leans closer in and kisses her. She opens her eyes and pushes him back only semi-successfully, because he is gripping her forearms and she doesn’t want to hurt him. She leaps to her feet and he stands along with her. Before she can gently step back he kisses her again and she slams her heel into his instep, causing him to let her go. She stares hard at him and says, “No.” His expression is a mixture of longing, embarrassment, and sorrow. He squeezes his eyes shut. “Bruce, look at me. Talk to me,” she says as gently but firmly as she can manage. When he does, his eyes flash Hulk-green. He doesn’t say anything. His response is to turn around hurriedly and walk away.

Diana watches him disappear down the flagstone path toward a well-disguised stairwell on the east side of the room. The ornamental grass along the short walkway glows orange as morning finally thrusts itself in full upon the arboretum. It is her favorite time of day in one of her favorite places. Morning is always so full of promise. She shivers in the light and draws Bruce’s jacket closer around her.

Diana runs into Steve about two-thirds of the way toward the main arboretum doors. “Hey! Did you remember to ask Bruce over for dinner? How was your session?” he calls out from a few yards away. She walks directly into him and throws her arms around his neck. Outside the room, Diana vaguely notices that SHIELD is officially up and running for the day. He hugs her. “Uh, I’m guessing something didn’t go well? What happened?” he asks. She shakes her head. He leads her over to a concrete bench surrounded by lavender plants. “You were right,” she says quietly, looking directly at him. I really didn’t know. Or maybe I just didn’t want to know.”

Steve takes a deep breath—it’s what he does when he’s working to stay a moment of anger. “So, you told him it wasn’t gonna happen, right? I mean, he’s not gonna bother you again. Maybe you should find another time and place to do yoga and stuff on your own.” He gestures to the jacket draped over her shoulders. “Do you want me to give that back to him?”

“No,” she says. “I’ll leave it in the Avengers wing for him…and I didn’t have to say anything. He admitted his behavior was out of order. Only…”

Steve raises an eyebrow. “Only?”

“Please just let him be. He’ll hurt you. But I have no secrets from you, my dearest.”

Steve waits. She takes a few moments to carefully word what she tells him next. Finally she says, “I kissed him on the forehead, the way I would an injured child. I think he misconstrued it as an invitation.”

If icicles could actually form in Steve’s eyes, Diana would believe it has just happened. Without changing anything about his position, his body appears to go rigid. “I beg your pardon,” It’s more of a statement than a question. “I actually had to injure him to make him stop,” she admits. “He already feels badly enough, Steve. Please let it go,” she pleads. “I’m afraid I’ve lost an important friend. Be here for me instead.”

His neck and face begin to turn pink. “Steve?” She knows that look, that rapid coloring. She lays a hand over his and tries to conjure an image for calm energy. Gently but firmly, he lifts her hand back off of his. “Don’t do that palliative thing, Diana. And no way am I letting this go.” He gets up and storms off. She watches sadly as he stalks toward the huge, glass-paned doors. Halfway toward the entrance to the arboretum he stops, pivots around and goes back to her. 

“I’m not mad at you,” he says. “I really feel bad that this happened to you, and I promise we’ll talk this over later.” He holds his hand out and she takes it; he kisses her and they walk toward the doors together. He wraps his arm around her waist just a little more tightly than usual. 

“Truth can be so painful,” she reminds herself again. He hasn’t said anything about dropping this with Bruce. Before they make it to the doors, she pulls him aside into a small alcove of flowering cacti. “I love you,” she says. His eyes are like the sky in springtime. She sees clarity and love, but she sees something else in them now as well. “He can’t control himself when he’s fighting. Please don’t confront him. He’s sorry. Let it go.”

Steve looks over his shoulder, out at the empty walking path from this humid little recess of succulent plants. He turns back and kisses her deeply. She lets him for a moment, but something is wrong: that same warning fluttering. She presses him away and tells him “I am not a post, and you are not a dog.” He lets go of her, frowns, and scratches his head. “Okay, you’ll have to explain that one, Diana.”

She sighs and folds her arms. “There is nothing of Bruce’s to kiss away or cover up with your own scent, Steve.” He looks away, slightly abashed. “That obvious,” he half-asks and half-states. “Sorry. I guess you’ve got more than one fella saying that to you today,” he says, smirking. It doesn’t make her any less annoyed. “I didn’t kiss him back. I did not permit his tongue to enter my mouth. I resisted as much as I could without seriously hurting him. Even then, he almost started changing.”

He lets his shoulders slump. “I never thought otherwise, sweetheart. I’m just mad. I don’t think my feelings are totally unwarranted.” Diana pulls him to her again and kisses him. “I like it in here,” she says, changing the subject. “I like how dangerous the flowers are.” He looks at her quizzically. “Oh?” She pulls him as close against her as she can, kisses him again, and runs her hands through his hair until her index fingers meet that one spot, slightly smaller than a dime. “Any time you forget with whom I belong, think of these flowers, and this spot, and two nights ago,” she whispers. That makes him smile for real and she is relieved. 

“Oh, what you do to me, wife,” he says. He leans in to kiss her again and they hear giggling, and a man clear his throat loudly. “Busted,” he grins. He holds her hand as they walk past the small group of office workers and security guards who have wandered toward them. “Show’s over. As you were,” he tells them. They part ways just outside the library. A few moments later, she realizes Steve has taken Bruce’s jacket from her shoulders and walked away with it.


End file.
